Americans Are Living Longer, but Not Necessarily Healthier, Study Shows

Years of Living With Disabilities Increase, Partly Because of Age

By

RON WINSLOW

July 10, 2013 5:34 p.m. ET

Americans are living longer than they did two decades ago, a new study shows, but they are losing ground in key measures of health status to counterparts in other developed nations around the globe.

Americans are living longer than they did two decades ago, a new study shows, but they are losing ground in key measures of health status to counterparts in other developed nations around the globe. Ron Winslow has a look at the study on Lunch Break. Photo: AP.

The findings, from the first major analysis of the health status of the U.S. population in more than 15 years, show progress in reducing death rates, adjusted for age, across a variety of diseases. But death rates from illnesses associated with obesity, such as diabetes and kidney disease, as well as neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, are on the rise.

In addition, years of living with chronic disability, an indicator of quality of life, increased for the average American over the past 20 years, partly reflecting the aging of the population.

“Individuals in the United States are living longer, but not necessarily in good health,” said the researchers, led by Christopher Murray, director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, Seattle.

The study was published online Wednesday by JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association. Dr. Murray is also presenting the results, along with data from separate reports on physical activity and obesity in counties across the U.S., at a White House event hosted by First Lady Michelle Obama as part of her Let’s Move campaign aimed at the problem of childhood obesity.

Outside experts cast the findings in economic terms, with current annual health-care outlays in the U.S. amounting to nearly 18% of the gross domestic product.

“Despite a level of health expenditures that would have seemed unthinkable a generation ago, the health of the U.S. population has improved only gradually and has fallen behind the pace of progress in many other wealthy nations,” said Harvey V. Fineberg, president of the Institute of Medicine, in an editorial accompanying the report. The IOM advises the government on health matters.

In every measure examined by the researchers, including life expectancy and quality of life, Dr. Fineberg noted, the U.S. ranking declined among the 34 member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Michael Roizen, chief wellness officer at the Cleveland Clinic, said the findings put the U.S. at a competitive disadvantage in the global job market. But he said much of the problem could be addressed with better diets and smaller food portions, increased physical activity, quitting smoking and better management of stress.

“They are things we totally have control over,” Dr. Roizen said. “It’s a matter of us getting serious about this.”

The analysis is based on 291 diseases and 67 risk factors for disease, as well as a variety of government-sponsored health surveys. It included data from 187 countries, making it one of the most ambitious efforts undertaken to assess disease burden not only in the U.S. but around the world.

In the U.S., life expectancy rose three full years to 78.2 years in 2010 from 75.2 in 1990, researchers found. But the nation’s ranking among OECD countries fell to 27th from 20th twenty years earlier.

Moreover, people were in good health, or without short- or long-term disability, for just 68.1 of those years on average, the report found. The gap of 10.1 years between total life span and a healthy life span increased from 9.4 years in 1990, and the U.S. ranking for a healthy life span fell to 26th from 14th two decades ago.

Despite significant progress against cardiovascular disease and some cancers, the lead causes of premature death in the U.S. remained blockages in coronary arteries that cause heart disease, lung cancer and strokes.

In contrast, leading contributors to disability were lower back pain and other disorders of muscles, nerves and joints, and depression and anxiety.

The increasing burden of chronic disabling conditions surprised the researchers, Dr. Murray said. While many such problems play only a limited role in premature death, they are major drivers of health-care costs, he said. “We are not very good at preventing them or curing them and only mildly good at treating them.”

In another surprising result, the researchers found that poor dietary habits have overtaken smoking as the most important risk factor associated with years of life lost to disability.

Dr. Murray also noted that the U.S. has made important headway against such problems as strokes; certain cancers, including colon and breast cancers; and HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. “It’s important to recognize that there are some areas where we do well,” he said.

Findings from the county studies being presented at the White House show a substantial increase in physical activity, including in Kentucky, a state that has traditionally trailed the pack in healthy living habits. But over 20 years, he said, not one county in the U.S. reduced the burden of obesity among its residents.